Evaluation Continued

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Societal Representation

'Work Outfit'

My media opening sequence predominantly focuses on the protagonist of my opening sequence as opposed the 'villain' towards the latter stages of my opening introduction. The look I wanted to my character to be perceived as a regular, middle-class citizen that would seem to have lived a completely ordinary life up until this moment, and I feel i represented this well in what he was wearing by giving him a 'work outfit' and then a more 'casual outfit' in order to really push through that this is a genuinely ordinary person, but looks can be deceiving as the audience later find out. I also wanted him to come across as 'normal' as possible to comply to Hitchcock's ideals of using red herrings, and I feel presenting the main character in this way, despite his unknown sinister past, will genuinely fool the audience. 

Despite the underlying sinister background behind this character, as the audience can only presently see how ordinary he is, and therefore it also truly represents how ordinary people are in danger of criminals, and although the acts performed are in no way realistic and common, the danger of being targeted, as an ordinary person, are still very real in today's society.

The infamous 'Joker' 

My character in
my media piece.

The other character involved in my media film is the supposed villain on the television screen. This character, and although on a personal level I disagree, he submits the stereotype of someone with psychological imbalance, and to the ignorants belief of a person with psychological problems. I based this character on one of the most well known character's of recent years, 'Joker' from 'The Dark Knight'. As a famous criminal with psychological issues, i felt he was a perfect example to base my character on.

Actors

The actors used in this film are late teens, both being 18 years old, but with their demeanour for both of their characters, I feel that they could represent an older group, which i tried to achieve as my film is based for an 18+ audience.

Music 

The music I used wasn't used to represent any sort of social group. The music i decided to use was chosen on the basis that it would determine the pace and build up of the film, as well as creating an eerie atmosphere as it was a non-diagetic piece.

Speech

Although my has limited speech, with the protagonist saying only one sentence throughout the entire opening sequence, i decided to tell my actor to use an expletive in order to firstly, show his confusion at what is happening to him at that present moment, and secondly to further reinforce how 'ordinary' this character is, by using the same language as that as a normal middle-class citizen would.

For my other character, he seems well spoken, and therefore you get the impression he's of a similar class to our protagonist, not from what our protagonist says, but through his attire and demeanour. From what the villain actually says, you are able to tell the pure rage and detest in his voice at our main character, which helps enables the audience to begin to form their own theories as to why this is happening to the main character, which is what i want, because I would want the audience guessing throughout the entire feature, which would make the twist all the more effective, should it have been made into an entire feature.

Behaviour

The behaviour I portrayed for the protagonist is that of a completely normal person, leaving and returning from work, he is perceived to be a just another person and therefore completely vulnerable to the situation which he is imminently going to find himself in, is obliviousness and supposed mundane existence all add to his vulnerability.

The behaviour presented by the other character would of course be deemed erratic, irrational and completely insane, which is exactly what i was hoping to achieve, I wanted this character to be seen as a terror figure and I received positive feedback from Tom Mehegan who viewed my piece, who described this character as "Disturbingly Scary."  

Comparison To Other Films

SAW VI

Sill from SAW VI

In this film, it takes a middle-class insurance broker who has come up with a formula to determine how long a person will live and therefore who he believes deserves cover to live, and who will be left to die, much to the 'Jigsaw Killer's dismay, and he puts this average citizen through the tasks to show him that his 'formula' excludes the innate human determination for our willingness to live for as long as possible, and proves it to him in SAWs typical exuberant, gore-fest way. I drew inspiration of the film from it's overall premise of an average citizen of whom does not believe he has done anything wrong, and another sanctimonious character that believes he needs to take it upon himself to exact justice. As this film is set in America, and mine in Britain, i could not draw exact similarities due to the construct of our nations healthcare compared to that in the USA. Although how our character reacts to what he will be put through, will be very similar in how the victim in SAW VI reacts and behaves.

Shuttter Island

A still from 'Shutter Island'

Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller masterpiece follows the investigation of Teddy Daniels, as he tries to find a 'missing' patient, even though it is deemed impossible to escape the island, and the only way out is death. Although this is set in a very different time, setting and there are a lot of differences between my media piece and shutter island, I was influenced by the whole ideals of the film in terms of climax of the film, and the complexity and twist of mistaken identity, and it is this ideal that I based my whole film plot around, so although there are no apparent similarities between my film and shutter island, my main influence was actually drawn from this modern day masterpiece.